December 1, 2004

Dear Mr. Bush,

Today you announced that you were sending 1,500 more troops to Iraq. When you announce something like that, what do you do in the morning? Are you able to think about other stuff, or do you just spend the day distracted, staring into space and thinking about the ramifications of it all? Do you sit there, absentmindedly pushing your fork around your breakfast plate--not really hungry, but not really not hungry either--checking your watch and wondering how long it will be until you feel normal again? Do you wander the halls making polite conversation, never remembering what it was you said or who it was to? Do you move papers around your desk, not for any reason other than it lets your brain relax around spacial relations and useless organization instead of concentrating on the big, black hole the news has created in your head?

Sending 1,500 people off to war--a war where almost exactly that many have died--shouldn't be something that you can just fit into your daily business. It should be the kind of thing that it takes you days to finally feel centered again, finally ready to move on to something else. So was it, Mr. Bush?

Happy December,

Dan